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Post by theghost on Jan 13, 2023 2:12:28 GMT -5
Hey, look…I feel like I can admit I was wrong and I was. But people acting like it was a massive sabotage of a segment…it fundamentally wasn’t. The difference being you can suggest that, well, it gives some substance to NJPW/STARDOM wanting her first America match since leaving WWE which, hey, fair, that’s what these agreements are for. And even with the Boss line, it wasn’t the same as having the Rampage announcement, Darby saying “Best in the World” and MJF quoting the Pipebomb in the same night. If CM Punk didn’t show up after that, well, it’d be a fundamental failure. This, well, will likely be remembered down the line. They announced a mystery partner tag match 5 weeks in advance. Tony said that “you’ll find out the partner in January” line on a podcast. They did the “Boss” and wink line last week. Saraya yesterday talked about putting the two tickets Britt gave her to good use. And then Britt and Jamie were wearing extremely similar gear to Mercedes’ WK gear. AEW has conditioned viewers to look into and believe the subtle hints because they usually deliver. This was a miss. I think this is ultimately the real issue. AEW played very coy about it and leaned into hinting Mercedes was coming in. If this was something they started without knowing for sure 100% she was going to be there, that's on them honestly. You can't put the cart before the horse.
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Post by Mid-Carder on Jan 13, 2023 2:30:59 GMT -5
Toni was someone I did not really care about as I felt she coasted for a long time on hype without delivering But she hasn't been given the best circumstances in AEW and has made it work each time. I would not turn her heel She doesn't need to go heel but could certainly play into her circumstances to become an edgier face. "I carried this division and gave it credibility when it needed it, where's my respect" etc
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A Little Doo Doo
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Post by A Little Doo Doo on Jan 13, 2023 2:40:16 GMT -5
Toni was someone I did not really care about as I felt she coasted for a long time on hype without delivering But she hasn't been given the best circumstances in AEW and has made it work each time. I would not turn her heel She doesn't need to go heel but could certainly play into her circumstances to become an edgier face. "I carried this division and gave it credibility when it needed it, where's my respect" etc "I tried to be a nawce guhl!!!"
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Post by Final Countdown Jones on Jan 13, 2023 3:05:55 GMT -5
My issue isn't even that it wasn't Mercedes specifically, but that it was nothing. If plans do fall through, that sucks, but you need to come out with literally anything. Negotiations fell apart? Okay. Second thoughts due to warnings trusted people gave you? Sure. Rossy wants her first match out of WWE and isn't open to sharing? Totally understandable. But do something then. They hyped it up like something exciting was happening and when they didn't have it, they settled instead for a reveal that kind of began to start a slow burn on something and then had a match where nothing huge happened afterward. Plot moved forward. Neat. Plot moves forward on lots of matches that don't get advertised for over a month. I think the sting of this is a lot tamer if people didn't feel like they came out of the whole situation totally empty-handed by getting a normal match and the promise that plot would move forward in the future with this new Shida thing. I'm sure it'll be neat, I'm looking forward to where it goes. But it's not worth the hype it got, and maybe nothing they could have done would have lived up to a big debut from the biggest free agent the division could land, sure, but Tony didn't bother to take any kind of shot or do anything to try and mitigate that.
Tony's not always the best at pivoting, but this was him throwing up his hands in the air and just moving on without trying to find a middle ground on that match living up to its hype.
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Post by Harry The Arrow was Wrong! on Jan 13, 2023 8:12:19 GMT -5
Man, remember when Wade said Keith Lee was difficult to work with. That shit was hilarious. I believe he said it about Bray too after they fired him.
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Post by Harry The Arrow was Wrong! on Jan 13, 2023 8:13:03 GMT -5
Also, off topic, but I thought Saraya looked waaaay more comfortable in this match.
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XIII
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Post by XIII on Jan 13, 2023 12:00:35 GMT -5
I don’t think it was Sasha’s attitude this time, I 100% believe that she’s difficult to work with but that will usually only manifest after she’s been somewhere a while. If I had to guess they entered negotiations and it seemed like it was going well right up until sometime around episode with the infamous Britt line and then either TK found out her price or Sasha upped/wouldn’t budge on her price/wouldn’t sign a long term contract and that was that.
Ultimately it didn’t annoy me to much though for whatever reason. The tag match was decent and Shida got some development. 🤷🏻♂️
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Post by Feargus McReddit on Jan 13, 2023 12:03:04 GMT -5
Man, remember when Wade said Keith Lee was difficult to work with. That shit was hilarious. I believe he said it about Bray too after they fired him. I think that’s sort of where I am. Like, maybe there is truth to it but I’m also going to take it with a pinch of salt because it only seems to come out for people who have potential outside WWE.
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Kalmia
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Post by Kalmia on Jan 13, 2023 12:11:56 GMT -5
What were the teases AEW gave that it would be Mercedes? I can remember:
1) Tony hinting at something on a podcast 2) Britt's "boss" comment
Was there anything else? I guess you could count the timing of the match being suspicious as well.
While I do think AEW hinted at Mercedes and shouldn't have done that unless the contract was signed, I do also think this is a case of wrestling fans being wrestling fans and running with it a little too hard.
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XIII
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Post by XIII on Jan 13, 2023 12:41:30 GMT -5
What were the teases AEW gave that it would be Mercedes? I can remember: 1) Tony hinting at something on a podcast 2) Britt's "boss" comment Was there anything else? I guess you could count the timing of the match being suspicious as well. While I do think AEW hinted at Mercedes and shouldn't have done that unless the contract was signed, I do also think this is a case of wrestling fans being wrestling fans and running with it a little too hard. I want to say that on the podcast TK said something like “he couldn’t talk about it until January” or something to that effect. Someone with a better memory will have to confirm that though. and the Boss comment was so on the nose that it can only be that Sasha was going to come in or Britt was taking a random shot at her for no reason.
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Post by Finish Uncle Muffin’s Story on Jan 13, 2023 12:43:11 GMT -5
While Wade seems to be the #1 source of the "let's let management anonymously talk shit about workers" stories I will say that Meltzer and Alvarez reported similar things after she walked out in May I think Wade's kind of fallen off in terms of relevance in the last 3-5 years, but the guy for a very, very long time was very connected. I don't think he's got as many sources anymore, but I don't think it's fair to just immediately write the guy off. Not saying you are, but others are kind of dismissing him and what he hears a little too quickly. There are a ton of people on Twitter calling him a racist too, which seems to be a pretty wild accusation.
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Fade
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Post by Fade on Jan 13, 2023 12:47:41 GMT -5
Also, off topic, but I thought Saraya looked waaaay more comfortable in this match. Had the same thought but I do think Meltzer’s right in saying that now, somewhat ironically, she’s leagues behind some of the other women.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 13, 2023 12:49:56 GMT -5
F*** me dead, why is like 90% of wrestling fandom now “Believe this source, don’t trust that source” and the runaway narratives that can get created thereof? Bring back hard televised kayfabe, I want off this ride.
My life was so much simpler when the only access I had to wrestling was just what was on the screen every week.
I realize that it's hypocritical of me to say that since I'm on a message board dedicated to professional wrestling and that's... kinda the point of the place, but wrestling's a lot more fun when you don't know the absolute childishness of the whole industry
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asuka007
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Post by asuka007 on Jan 13, 2023 12:53:03 GMT -5
What were the teases AEW gave that it would be Mercedes? I can remember: 1) Tony hinting at something on a podcast 2) Britt's "boss" comment Was there anything else? I guess you could count the timing of the match being suspicious as well. While I do think AEW hinted at Mercedes and shouldn't have done that unless the contract was signed, I do also think this is a case of wrestling fans being wrestling fans and running with it a little too hard. I want to say that on the podcast TK said something like “he couldn’t talk about it until January” or something to that effect. Someone with a better memory will have to confirm that though. and the Boss comment was so on the nose that it can only be that Sasha was going to come in or Britt was taking a random shot at her for no reason. It was Grapsody. TK was flat out asked about the partner and he dodged the question and said something about “finding out more in January” or something. So yeah they had chances to put this to bed 100% and just didn’t do it.
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clifford
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Post by clifford on Jan 13, 2023 13:01:30 GMT -5
Whatever may or may not have been in the works and may or may not have fallen through, I'm real glad Mercedes isn't in AEW right now. It's not that I don't like her, far from it but
a) AEW's womens division seems to actually be clicking and another huge star to fit in might just derail it AGAIN
b) I wanna see how she gets on in NJPW and Stardom and really give that all her attention ans energy first.
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XIII
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Post by XIII on Jan 13, 2023 13:06:07 GMT -5
Whatever may or may not have been in the works and may or may not have fallen through, I'm real glad Mercedes isn't in AEW right now. It's not that I don't like her, far from it but a) AEW's womens division seems to actually be clicking and another huge star to fit in might just derail it AGAIN b) I wanna see how she gets on in NJPW and Stardom and really give that all her attention ans energy first. Honestly it’s probably for the best that she’s not in for those very reasons. There’s absolutely no telling how she’ll do outside of the WWE system. It could be amazing, it could be really bad, or it could be just kind of meh. Definitely need to see how she wrestles and handles herself in Japan first because that’s going to tell a lot about her outside WWE career.
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Post by polarbearpete on Jan 13, 2023 13:23:52 GMT -5
What were the teases AEW gave that it would be Mercedes? I can remember: 1) Tony hinting at something on a podcast 2) Britt's "boss" comment Was there anything else? I guess you could count the timing of the match being suspicious as well. While I do think AEW hinted at Mercedes and shouldn't have done that unless the contract was signed, I do also think this is a case of wrestling fans being wrestling fans and running with it a little too hard. Tony saying on the podcast we’d find out the partner in January. He also looked giddy to where people on this board were saying “see it’s obviously Mercedes.” The Boss and wink line. The announcement of the tag match like 5 weeks out. Saraya saying that she’s going to put the 2 tickets Britt gave her to good use. Might be coincidence, but Britt and Jamie’s gear was near identical in color and pattern to Mercedes’ WK gear. Plus the fact that there was so much speculation that it was her, that AEW could have easily put something out through the dirt sheets that Mercedes would not be there if they didn’t want any fan backlash.
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Post by mrpeacock on Jan 13, 2023 14:27:43 GMT -5
What were the teases AEW gave that it would be Mercedes? I can remember: 1) Tony hinting at something on a podcast 2) Britt's "boss" comment Was there anything else? I guess you could count the timing of the match being suspicious as well. While I do think AEW hinted at Mercedes and shouldn't have done that unless the contract was signed, I do also think this is a case of wrestling fans being wrestling fans and running with it a little too hard. Tony saying on the podcast we’d find out the partner in January. He also looked giddy to where people on this board were saying “see it’s obviously Mercedes.” The Boss and wink line. The announcement of the tag match like 5 weeks out. Saraya saying that she’s going to put the 2 tickets Britt gave her to good use. Might be coincidence, but Britt and Jamie’s gear was near identical in color and pattern to Mercedes’ WK gear. Plus the fact that there was so much speculation that it was her, that AEW could have easily put something out through the dirt sheets that Mercedes would not be there if they didn’t want any fan backlash. Meltzer did say she wasn’t gonna be there. I feel like a lot of people just assumed he was being worked.
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Post by polarbearpete on Jan 13, 2023 15:15:50 GMT -5
Tony saying on the podcast we’d find out the partner in January. He also looked giddy to where people on this board were saying “see it’s obviously Mercedes.” The Boss and wink line. The announcement of the tag match like 5 weeks out. Saraya saying that she’s going to put the 2 tickets Britt gave her to good use. Might be coincidence, but Britt and Jamie’s gear was near identical in color and pattern to Mercedes’ WK gear. Plus the fact that there was so much speculation that it was her, that AEW could have easily put something out through the dirt sheets that Mercedes would not be there if they didn’t want any fan backlash. Meltzer did say she wasn’t gonna be there. I feel like a lot of people just assumed he was being worked. He said that and then he backtracked saying he didn’t know, that it was just something someone in the match told him. He said I don’t think she’ll be there, and Bryan thinks she will, but we don’t know.
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markymark
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Post by markymark on Jan 15, 2023 11:36:07 GMT -5
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